Hammer Study

Only two years before making this work, Dine was participating in "Happenings", performance-based art pieces orchestrated by the artist Alan Kaprow (1927-2006) as well as exhibiting constructions and collages at alternative galleries also frequented by Kaprow, Claes Oldenburg (see 1999.705), and George Segal (see 2004.246). By 1962 Dine was creating paintings that appeared more like drawings on canvas and incorporated real, everyday things, such as hammers and other tools. This work is part of a series that features tools familiar from Dine's youth working in his father's hardware store. Although Dine is an exceptional draughtsman, it is only in the form of a crude pencil outline that a complete hammer appears in this work. Dine's work shares some similarities with Pop art, including the appropriation of everyday objects, such as the hammer here, into art. However, the artist has disavowed allegiance with the Pop movement saying, "I'm not a Pop artist… I'm too subjective."